Poole - pleasant paddle but disappointing catch

Fished Poole Harbour with my bro on the kayak. Calm overcast day with the sun breaking through every now again gave plenty of promise. We fished the boat channel and I had a few solid bites on squid on the bottom but did not connect. A couple of times we landed Spider Crabs but they were more of annoyance than a chance for celebration. After the tide had slowly come in we went inshore looking for Bass and Mullet keeping clear of the nursery area. Eventually the reel screamed off in just feet of water. No Bass but a solitary large Mackerel which I have to say was disappointing after the colossal fight it put up. A bit later into the afternoon and another surprise: after a few unsuccessful follows I caught nice Gar on a surface lure. The Bass were around but preoccupied on something other than what we had to offer. A long day and not much to show for it but a pleasant paddle in the warm late summer weather.

Summer surf in Tenerife - lesson is 'Early bird gets the worm' at Las Americas

During a couple of weeks in Tenerife I managed to get a handful of surfing sessions in with the largest day about shoulder high. Surfed mainly Piscinas off Las Americas as the swell had a fair bit of South in it. Piscinas is familiar to me as it breaks not unlike the Ledges at Kimmeridge with an easy takeoff and a winding left. It sometimes has two peaks combining to lengthen the ride. The right can suck up on the inside but tends to be fat on the outside. The only downside of the break is that it attracts surfers who ride longer boards and a half a dozen proficient long boarders on the peak can keep your wave count down.

Piscinas (or El Conquistador) on the best swell of the fortnight 

One day the swell came in more from the NW and Spanish Left started to work which is a few hundred meters N of of Piscinas. (Its worth noting La Derecha is classy right in between the two which is dominated by good locals). On that swell I did surf the slower right which peels off the other end of Spanish Left (not sure what the wave is called) which is the haunt of the local surf schools. I am amazed that the local shops take groups of inexperienced young beginners out here - not exactly the best conditions to learn in. They troupe them out on the shit pipe into the line up and coax them into powerful waves that offload onto the flattish rock (if your lucky, if not it might be lava lumps). I guess they see it as a local resource they need exploit at Las Americas but surely onshore El Medano would be better option where children and beginners can learn over sand. 

Funnily enough  the best swell of my visit must have sneaked through unseen as the session saw the smallest crowd.  On all days however by mid afternoon every break was pretty saturated with surfers fighting over ragged small peaks in the onshores. I could only conclude that the surf community here at this time of year thrives on social interaction with a certain amount of exhibitionism and few hangovers thrown in. This suits me as I will continue to get uncrowded better conditions at dawn.  Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the amount and quality of the surf in the height of summer when I thought it was going to be pretty flat.

Tenerife 2013 Sea Fishy tales...

Just come back from a few weeks in Tenerife with the family. Plenty of fishing off the breakwaters and rocks with lots of fish caught, most however wouldn't look out of place in your average saltwater aquarium. Light tackle order of the day with Size 12 hooks and reasonably small floats for sea fishing. I did try the fly occasionally but without success. I refined my technique to keep the bait in the water long enough for the bigger fish. This was to use a pinch of my trusty Ramer sponge capped with a squid tip. Bread would soon be removed without a positive take. At times I did groundbait with mashed bread, sweetcorn and tinned fish but I am not sure it increased the chances of hooking a bigger fish and merely turned your mark into a boiling mass of little rock dwellers. The lagoons held good numbers of Salema Porgy (a type of Bream), Vieja ( a type of Parrot Fish) and Mullet with odd European Sea Bass (farmed escapees sub 35cm) and small Cuda but getting a hook up was not easy. Mullet despite being the largest target were impossible to tempt, they seemed pre-occupied with grazing on the algae boulders. In between catching double figure numbers of Canarian Damsel Fish or Ornate Wrasse you might just have a scrap with a Porgy, European Sea Bass, Pompano or Vieja all on my bread substitute, which was nice on light tackle.

Ornate Wrasse

Lizard Fish

Canarian Damsel

No Guilthead Bream this time which was surprising as I did see the odd one snorkelling. Feathers or lures just produced the abundant Lizard Fish which although unusual never exceeded 30cm in length. Larger tides produced more fish in the lagoons particularly a few hours either side of high tide.  If you feel the need to take the odd fish for the table the Vieja is recommended despite its wrasse like appearance was delicious baked with butter, coriander and parsley. Rock fishing in exposed places was dangerous in any form of swell as even with my awareness of set waves I was caught out several times and found myself clinging limpet like to the lava  - sometimes I wonder why I push the boundaries so, it seems fishing does funny thinks to the logical mind. One other word of warning - Green Turtle were occasional visitors close inshore at this time of year which made for some spectacular snorkeling however if you know they are present best to move on when fishing.

Salema Porgy - the most abundant bream in the area.

Vieja - fish deep on the seaward side of inshore reefs
 and be prepared to make ground immediately.

Courting Flounders 

Grazing Mullet - if only they grazed on my bread fly!

Hooked on Mullet on the fly..

After a couple of weeks in Cornwall I finally achieved an aspiration of mine of catching Mullet. Having now got it wired on a fly rod I am slightly obsessed with this wonderful fish. Crazy fighting fish on light tackle - who wants to pay thousands for Bonefish in the tropics when you have these little beauties to target in the UK's coastal shallow water. I have tried for years to hook these on the estuaries around Cornwall and after catching a few on light float gear to start I have now mastered a few on the fly. I even used my trusty Fladen 3 weight with just a 4lb tippet - although I knew after surveillance the location where I was fishing wasn't going to produce anything over a couple of pounds. The fish I caught ranged from 0.5lb to about 1.5lb and even at that size on my light tackle they gave great sport. I used bread flies so not quite as sporting as using a nymph or shrimp pattern but I was pleased nevertheless. The key was to get the fish confidently feeding and cast the fly amongst the feeding fish - the more competition the better. Takes were vigorous and I kept a very slow retrieve to keep in contact with fly at all times - slack line meant no hook up. Size 10 hooks were the order of the day. I am now keen to try my skills closer to home and have already located Mullet some 20 minutes from my door - now how can I get them feeding?

Lacock trip with no bait just fly.

Spent an evening fishing Lacock as I had the season ticket. Surprised the Upper Bristol Avon still held a fair bit of water although the weed growth was impressive with cabbages and rannuculus everywhere. I searched an eddy under a Willow with a small pink Grayling nymph and hit stiff resistance. The fish hugged the bottom and embedded itself in the weed. I had flashes of gold and hoped, just hoped it might be my first Barbel on the fly. After a colossal struggle on my 3 weight with 3lb tippet I managed to get the fish in the net. It was no Barbel but a lovely Chub which I conservatively guessed at about 4lb. After that things slowed down until the final hours of daylight when on a shallow stretch I caught a plentiful number of Chublet and Dace on the dry. Disappointed by the rubbish on the bank and a persistent scrambler/quad biker in the field - why do people want to spoil these nice stretches of river and countryside. I was concerned I might disturb the hard core bait fisherman but as I came across no one I am keen to return.

Cam Brook swim...

A few pleasant hours firstly cutting back excessive cover and then fishing a second stretch on the Cam Brook. Don't get me wrong I love cover but there comes a time when you need to get a cast in and a light bit of  low branch removal can open up pools that just need to be fished. Amazed I actually went for a swim at times despite the low water much to the amusement of the rest of the Cam maintenance team. It just goes to show even the little Cam Brook can surprise you and we all need to take care when wading. The fishing was slow but I found a few on the nymph and missed several to the dry probably due to fishing the duo. You might have noticed not much blogging of late - I have been out but busy with the family at all other times in the summer we finally deserve. Incidentally dry fly Dace fishing on the Chew has been great with some fish approaching a pound.

Southbourne Kayaking

Lovely Friday kayaking out of Southbourne with my bro and a friend, Pat, from his village. We set off with feathers, lures and a bit of squid I had left from an unsuccessful boat trip out of West Bay. Is it me or are charter boat trips just an excuse to fill small boat full of fee paying punters putting them on marks which are fished day after day just on the off chance someone on the boat might catch something half decent? Every time I go out I come in disappointed and really wonder whether the skipper has actually made an effort to put you on the fish. Anyway enough of the whinge back to kayaking where even if you don't catch fish its a wonderful experience and bit of exercise chucked in. We fished just a half a mile offshore. Rich picked up a Black Bream immediately. I had many tentative bream plucks and wished I'd taken my coarse hooks or fly hooks. I changed tactics and went onto a weighted eel and on the first cast hooked into nice little Gurnard. Rich and Pat went on to catch some Mackerel and I ended up with a second Gurnard. Not quite enough to feed the family but a pleasant day on the ocean nevertheless.